I 



I LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.' 



Chap. 
Shelf 



J0S 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



rt) 



A DISCOURSE. 



I?Y 



REV. Dl|. BYROf( SUNDERLAf(D, 



ON THE 



HOOTING OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD 



AT THE DEPOT IN WASHINQTON, SATURDAY MORNING, 
JULY 2D, 1881, BY OHARLES J. UUITEAU : 



DELIVERED AT 



THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, 



^YASHINGTON■, D. C, 



SABBATH MORNING, JULY 3cl, 1881. 




WASHINGTON, D. C: 
U. 0. POLKiyHORX, PRIXTER. 

1881. 



A DISCOURSE, 



BY 



REV. \i\ BYRO\ 3UNDERLA1(D, 



ON THE 



OTINGOFPRESIDENTGJi.EFIELD 



AT THE DEPOT IN WASHINOTON, SATURDAY MORNINO, 
JULY 2D, 1881, BY CHARLES J. GUITEATJ : 



DELIVERED AT 



THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, 



WASHINGTON, D. C, 



SABBATH MORNING, ,JLTLY 3d, 1881. 




WASHINGTON, D. c: 

R. 0. POLKINHORN, PRINTER. 

18S1. 



£^f/ 



,sfcr 



Washington, D. C, 4th Jvly, IKSl. 
Rev. Byron Sundkrland, D. D. : 

Dear Sir: We earnestly unite in asking of you the manuscript ot 
your able sermon of yesterday morning having for its subject the les- 
sons to be learned of the atrocious attempt on Saturday last upon the 
life of our noble President, whose continued extreme danger has made 
this a day of deep solicitude and sorrow instead of celebration and joy. 

It is our desire to print and give it circulation beyond the walls ol 
the church of which you have been so long its loved pastor, for M'e 
believe it contains truth worthy of earnest heed on the part of every 
lover of our dear country. 

Very sincerely and truly, 

John Bailey, J. P- Low, 

S. W. CuRRiDEN, Gov. R. P. Lowe, 

J. E. Carpenter, James Patterson, 

H. Crittenden, T. F. Sargent, 

F. B. Dalrymple, Chauncey Smith, 
Charles DuBois, E. B. Taylor, 

G. M. Fisher, T. C. Thaker, 
M. S. Gibson, Alfred Thomas, 
C. H. Graves, E. D. Tracy, 

Dr. G. F. Johnston, S. M. Williamson, 

Octavius Knight, Irving Williamson, 

And others. 



Washington, July 4t?i, ISSO. 
Messrs. Bailey, Curriden, and others: 

Gentlemen: In reply to your request, I submit the manuscript ol 
my discourse for publication. 

Thanking you for the favorable opinion and just sentiments you ex- 
press; sharing with you, as well as the people of the whole country, 
in the astonishment and sorrow of this day; and I'ervently praying 
that this evil may be overruled for good — I remain, gentlemen. 
Very truly, your friend, 

B. SUNDERLAND. 



>m^3{M0X- 



EzEKiEL VII.: 17. All hands shall be feeble and all knees shall 
be weak as water. 

The event of yesterday has filled the land with a 
new dismay. "All hands are feeble and all knees are 
weak as water." 

Assassination is the grimmest ghost that stalks 
among the nations. Of all the spectres that haunt our 
planet — to fill mankind with horror — none is more 
demoniac. Well it is for human kind that the fell 
spirit is hut rarely permitted to execute its fiendish 
deeds. No sadder page does the muse of history 
record. 

When Ca?sar was slain tlie Roman people wor- 
shipped him as a god ; when Henry IV. of France 
was stabbed to the heart in the streets of Paris, his 
death was mourned as a national calamity. When 
Lincoln was laid low by the shot of a dastard stage- 
player, his demise w^as an event which raised the 
sympathetic indignation of the civilized world. 
When Alexander II. of Russia was torn in pieces by 
Nihilist torpedoes, a shudder ran through the nations 
of Europe, the tremors of which still linger in the 
hearts of men. 

But who could dream that here in our peaceful, 



4 
favored country, under the freest government on earth, 
with so many severe struggles over-past, so many 
deliverances wrought out, so many prosperities smil- 
ing on every hand, so much happiness filling the 
hearts and hopes of the people, the dreadful shadow 
would break in upon us, the demon would spring 
again, as from the mouth of hell, and in a moment 
cover the land with the darkness of terror, making 
all hands feeble and all knees weak as water ? 

On the very eve of the Nation's anniversary, when 
the land should be hlled with grateful juljilation, and 
men should have occasion to speak proudly of the 
joosition of the great Republic among this world's pow- 
ers, ascribing to the Grod of our fathers the glory of 
our establishment and the splendor of our progress — 
here in his own Capitol, on a bright summer Satur- 
day morning, before the eyes of men, women and 
children, at a public station, through which he was 
passing, bearing in his person the chief dignity of 
the Magistracy- -that the President should be shot 
down as if he were a dog ; that the murderous hand 
should bear an aim so cruel and then that the lips of 
the demoniac should pronounce the deed " a political 
necessity," is all so sudden, so startling, so appalling, 
as to paralyze our very thoughts. In such a time 
Rumor, hundred tongued, gives voice to imagination, 
and public inquiry must await with patience the reso- 
lution of the dreadful confusion. 

Through day and niglit suspense has held her breath, 
while the bulletins from ihe White House, where he 



lies, have aniioimcecl the progress of liis stnioole ibr 
life; and while the Faculty are usiii_<;- Ihcii- utmost 
skill to turn the trembling scale in liis favor, the 
heart of every christian in the land has been i)()ui-hig 
forth its prayer into the ears of (lod that He will raise 
up again the prostrate ruler of this i)eople. One 
touch of the Almighty hnger can tui'u His sei'vant 
at this time from the issues of death ! 

But what a spectacle ! Around the couch of Gar- 
field a procession files to-day with muffled tread and 
tearful countenance. In that procession is the Fealty 
of fifty millions of people to our form of government. 
There is the woful face of our National Constitution, 
looking on the pallid and bleeding form of liim in 
whom it has been so brutally and basely desecrated ; 
there I see the sad genius of our American Institu- 
tions, bending in grief and shame at the outrage com- 
mitted in the name of political necessit}-. There, too, 
is the venerable and august presence of Civil Liberty, 
weejDing for the dishonor of her much-favored people ; 
and there, in deejoest sympathy of affliction, stand 
Public Order, and Honest Labor, and Sober Industry, 
and Eager Commerce, and Gold-Browed Finance, 
each smitten with the shock ; each grieving with ap- 
prehension ; yea, and all the Trades of Human Dis- 
covery and Invention, the Sons of Literature and 
Science, come bowing in anguish. 

He was on his way to the Alma Mater, where ex- 
pectation had long prepared for his coming, and where 
in the classic halls of learning his laurel wreath 



6 

awaited him. Ikit more than this. May we not say 
that over tliat hloocly couch bend down at this mo- 
ment the immortal shades of our fathers with looks 
of lamentation ? Alas ! when they laid the founda- 
tion of this free nation — when in the old historic Hall 
they affixed their names to the Declaration, and when 
they proclaimed it would be celebrated in all gene- 
rations b}^ "festivities, bon-fires, and illuminations," 
how little did they imagine that the demon spirit 
which had stained the roll of hivStory with the crime 
of regicide would ever assault the sovereignty of the 
people in the person of their Chief Magistrate. 

So, in this period dedicated to memories which 
stir our minds with gratitude and pride, the paeans 
turn to songs of mourning, the gladness is changed 
to grief, mirth ceases from the land, and every pat- 
riot's head hangs low with dread and shame. 

How changed will be the tone of the pulpit and 
the press through all the land to-day. This year of 
marvels has now added to its portrait one foul blot 
which cannot be effaced. The bullet of a bloody 
man has laid low in the dust this great nation's pride 
— and the Calends of July, 1881, will stand in the 
records of time signalled with fiendish crime. 

With such events staring us in the face, what heart 
can we have, as a people, to celebrate our liberties ; 
with such possibilities before us, in peaceful and quiet 
times, what civic honors can ever be safe ; what 
pleasing anticipations may be suddenly cut off. It 
is thus, we find, iilikc with men and nations — the good 



7 
and evil commingled, the mystery of darkness shad- 
owing the brightest lines of human hfe. When on 
this day we would have opened our mouth in glad- 
ness, and made remembrance of oui- iKilioiiul liistoric 
fame, and sounded the trumpet of the future, calHng 
all hearts to omens of hope and deeds of heroic vir- 
tue, we have suddenly to suppress our growing ardor 
and give way to the anguish of deep humiliation. 

But in the stillness of the (h-ead husli which lies 
upon the Nation, what lessons spring from the con- 
templation of such a tragedy ? What views should 
be taken of an event like this ? The secular press 
will no doubt fully express and difl'use the atheistic 
notions prevailing in our times, and will discuss, with- 
out reference to God or His providence, the nature 
and influence of this flagitious crime. But it is the 
duty of the Christian pulpit to direct the public mind 
in those channels of sober thought which are opened 
in the Christian theory of a Supreme Ruler guiding 
the afi'airs of men, and working out from age to age 
the sublime purposes of a Divine administration. 

1. First, then, it may be said that the shooting of 
the President w^as the work of a wretched adventurer, 
who, broken in fortune and claiming some place 
under the Grovernment, was driven to desperation, 
and who sought relief by an assault on the life of the 
Chief Magistrate. " That a man of right principles 
and a sound mind could ever be induced to the per- 
formance of such a deed is wholly inadmissible. The 



8 
expressions which the homicide is reported to have 
made on his arrest — the views annomiced by him in 
a letter taken from his person, must be regarded as 
the vaporings of an unbakmced intellect attempting 
to justify his most heinous crime. He styles himself 
a lawyer, a theologian and a politician. Under which 
of these professions he would rank his infamous deed 
he has not attempted to disclose. But any ascription 
of the crime to either would be a libel on the truth, 
and a horrid travesty on all the honorable pursuits of 
men. Can, then, the irreligious science or philoso- 
phy of our day explain the state of mind or trace the 
effectual causes which led him to the act ? It is evi- 
dent that his own explanation must be taken as simply 
the baseless raving of a fanatic too vicious for sober 
logic, aad yet too studied to escape responsibility. 

Yet I discover in an infidel book the follow- 
ing exposition of a theme which bears directly upon 
this point : "In the phenomena of mind we find 
the same endless chain of efficient causes — the 
same mechanical necessity. Every thought must 
have had an efficient cause : every motive, every de- 
sire, every fear, every hope and dream, must have 
been necessarily produced. There is no room in the 
mind of man for providence or chance. The facts 
and forces governing thought are as absolute as 
those governing the motions of the planets. 
A poem is produced by the forces of nature, 
and is as necessarily and naturally produced as mount- 
ains and seas. You will seek in vain for a thought 



9 
in man's brain without its efficient cause.- — Every 
mental operation is the necessary resuU. of certain 
fiicts and conditions, — Mental phenomena are consid- 
ered more compUcated than those of matter, and con- 
sequently more mysterious. Being more mysterious 
they are considered better evidence of the existence 
of a Grod. No one infers a god from the simple — from 
the known — from what is understood, but from the 
complex, from the unknown and incomprehensible — 
our ignorance is God. What we know is science. 
When we abandon the doctrine that some infinite 
Being created matter and force, and enacted a code 
of laws for their government, the idea of interference 
will be lost. The real priest will then be not the 
mouth-piece of some pretended deity, but the inter- 
preter of nature. From that moment the church 
(teases to exist ; the tapers will die out upon the 
dusty altar ; the moths will eat the fading velvet of 
pew and pulpit ; the Bible will take its place with 
the Shastras, Puranas, Yedas, Eddas, Sagas, and 
Korans, and the fetters of a degrading faith will fall 
from the minds of men." 

This is the blind and superficial doctrine of the 
current evolution. It is the survival of the fittest in 
the struggle for existence. It is the doctrine of pos- 
itive fate and mechanical necessity— and, as applied 
to the case before us, it is an imposition on the moral 
and religious convictions of the whole country. What 
place has an infidel philosophy in meeting a great 
national calamitj^ like this? How vain and vapid 



10 
are its reasonings ! How frigid and fruitless its con- 
solations ! 

If the teaching above cited be true, then why has 
the homicide been incarcerated ? Why is he held in 
custody for a moment ? He is as much a victim of 
fate as the victim of his assault ; and courts of justice 
are a mocker}^ and criminal punishment an oppres- 
sion. AVith what repugnance does the soul of the af- 
flicted nation turn away from the maudlin vaporings 
of atheism in such a day as this ! 

2. But what is the Christian philosophy of this 
event ? It is simply that which the Bible reveals — 
an almighty and perfect moral Governor of the world, 
who has created the human race and placed them 
under His law as free moral agents ; who has given 
them, within certain limitations, the power of choice, 
and who holds them responsible for the exercise of 
that choice. And so this same Supreme Ruler of the 
world has divided the nations, both in time and space. 
He raises up one and puts down another. He so 
controls all things in His providence as to hold men 
in themselves and in society amenable to His law for 
the deeds they do ; and it is upon this righteous 
principle of God's moral government that all enlight- 
ened and civilized modern human government is 
founded ; and when society forgetst his principle ; 
when, through the influence of human depravity and 
practical atheism, the laws and ordinances of heaven 
are trampled underfoot ; when public discipline be- 
comes lax, and the whole mass of the people — espec- 



11 

ially the dregs of society — ar.e delivered up to the free 
license of vanity and conceit in the sacred name of God 
and libert}'" ; when all social order is broken down, 
and there is no more any veneration for authority in 
the land — then a state of things has been prepared 
in which such events as this may easily transpire ! 

It is plain that the stroke which has now fallen on 
the head of the nation has not made him the victim 
on any merely personal grounds ; but as the repre- 
sentative of the nation's authority, he has been 
smitten down l)y the hand of murder — and this hor- 
rible deed has been permitted to take j^lace, under 
the providence of God, in order that the people of 
this country and the world may learn the perils of 
unljounded license as they have alread}^ learned those 
of despotic tyranny in ages past ; and the lesson 
which springs from the day's disaster is one which 
no system of atheistic philosophj^ would suggest — 
namely, that it is unsafe to permit the domicile of the 
magistrate, oi the movements of his person, to be 
haunted by fanatical tramps, hungry with greed of 
office and maddened by disappointment to deeds of 
desperation. 

I hold that the powers which be are ordained of 
God ; and that in this country those powers derived 
from the people themselves, and expressed by their 
representatives in the laws established, and in their 
just and faithful administration, must be respected 
and obeyed, in order to preserve society from utter 
dissolution. But what are the actual facts of the 



12 
case ? Vice and irreligion abound on every hand ; 
the Sabbath of God is with multitudes becoming a 
thing of the past ; intemperance and profanation of 
all sacred things are wide-spread ; and a universal 
greed of gain without lal)or has eaten at the core of 
the public morals of the nation. In too many cases, 
gambling speculation controls politics and legisla- 
tion ; men high in popular favor have lent their in- 
fluence to this demoralization ; the example of prom- 
inent station has contributed to the growing laxity ; 
the public press has only too often and too constantly 
sneered at moral sentiments, indulged in the wildest 
spirit of defamation, and prostituted its mighty pow- 
ers in pandering to the basest passions ; the sanctions 
of religion have been undermined, and the reverence 
denied to God and his laws has been followed in too 
many cases by the repudiation of all respect for the 
obligations between man and man. 

A gross instance of this laxity occurred in our 
own city but a short time since, and to which I shall 
take the liberty here to refer. A well-meaning citi- 
zen propounded a question of Sabbath desecration to the 
District authorities and they referred it to the law 
officer for an opinion. His answer was a disgrace to 
his profession, and an affront to the religious senti- 
ment of the age. He cited, for the purpose of hold- 
ing up to contempt, the statute on blasphemy — and 
even ventured to impugn the Sabbath labors of the 
Christian clergy. He stated that the almost univer- 
sal belief was that the Supreme Ruler of the universe 



18 
could not have ITis own way uj)on our glol)C, even 
with such aid as man had been disposed to volunteer. 
He quoted the penalties of the law which were, in 
the judgment of the IVamers of it, the measure oi' 
such deserts — and in whicli we should onl}' dill'er 
from them in relegating them to the hand of God him- 
self; and he concluded by virtually admitting that no 
competent Sabbath laws were in force among us — and 
the whole Christian church sat by and made no pro- 
test or sign of dissent whatsoever. 

The fact is, we are all more or less responsible in 
this community for such a state of things, when the 
very officers of the law and custodians of the public 
morals, with the tacit consent of the whole Christian 
church, thus formally and officially cast down all the 
sanctions of authority both human and divine. 
What may we expect shall not transpire to pollute 
the very soil on which we stand ! 

3. But there is another lesson which this calamity 
most deeply impresses — namely, the different values 
in the lives of men and the j)erils which yet belong 
the same to all. In this case it is bad enough at the 
best. The career of the Chief Magistrate for a score 
of years in public life, has been distinguished, and is 
familiar to us all ; and whatever may be men's views 
of his policy and procedure since his inauguration, 
no true American, of any class, will, for a moment, 
seek to disparage the fact that he has risen to the 
highest office of human fame, and stands clothed with 
the majesty of the Executive power of a great people. 



14 

To strike him down from liis high oihce is to wound 
the nation's very head. And when, on the other hand, 
we turn to scrutinize the personal vakie of the Ufe of 
the assassin, what compensation might his death be 
for the loss of the President of the United States ? 
Life for life it may be ; but how unequal the ex- 
change! Amid what dangers do the most favored 
walk when, as the great poet of nature writes — "An 
eagle soaring in his pride of power is hawked at by 
a mousing owl and killed." Whoever has strength 
enough to pull a trigger and malice enough to assault 
the fairest, proudest citadel of human life, can put in 
jeopardy the very Chosen of the people — and tliere 
is absolutely no adequate atonement. If the Presi- 
dent should die then the miserable carcass of the as- 
sassin may adorn the gallows. But if the President 
should by any means survive, then his would-be mur- 
derer would simply be domiciled in some house of 
correction at government expense. And what satis- 
faction can this furnish for the commission of so great 
a crime ! 

Out of the bright hours and happy throngs of re- 
joicing people — full of the plans and pleasures of the 
coming days — this new anguish grows upon the Na- 
tion, and the whole land shudders with a deep dread 
of apprehension as to the hope of the morning suc- 
ceeds the night's uncertainty and the gloom of mor- 
tal suspense. And all this fearful change is wrought 
as in a moment by a vagabond's bloody caprice. 
They will doubtless attempt to shield him by prov- 



15 
ing him a maniac. But maniac or not the gallows 
should claim him for its own. The error of this 
country, perliaps more than of any other, is lenity 
toward criminals. And when a few more Presidents 
are slaughtered perhaps the dilettanti dream of an illu- 
sive humanitarianism ma}- finally be dispelled and some 
more competent punishment devised. Till then the 
only price for an offence like this must be the con- 
finement of the offender at public cost. 

Yes, men may scoff at the idea of atonement under 
the government of God, that sin may be destroyed 
and the sinner live ; but look at the great characters 
in human history, and the effect of thf^ir death by 
the hand of violence. They have been the foremost 
men of all the world. It is a sad, strange thing that 
only thus has the evil of the world been counter- 
vailed. There must be sacrifice. It is the doctrine 
of the New Testament, and the Supreme sacrifice 
was Gkrist Himself. Never was there a truer say- 
ing than this : the blood of the martyrs is the seed of 
the church ; and I will add what has also been 
proved in history, the blood of patriots is the seed of 
the State. There are many who complain of the 
despotism of the Church-^ the cruelty of the priest- 
hood. They have yet to learn of the despotism of 
the mob and the more fearful cruelty of the autocrat 
of the pavement ! The liberalism of our day needs a 
lesson in the volume of European communism and 
nihilism, and there are men among us who are the 
forerunners and abettors of this carnival of crime ; 



16 
men who, by their pubhc teachings, are corrupters 
of society at its very foundations, and who, applauded 
by Ustening thousands, are preparing this people for 
the renewal of those old dreadful Roman dnys, so 
vividly drawn in the mouth of the great conspirator, 
Catiline : 

"Traitor, I go. but I return! Look to your hearths, my lords, for 
there hencelorth shall sit for household gods shapes hot from Tar- 
tarus — all shames and crimes — wan Treachery with his thirsty dagger 
drawn — Suspicion poisoning his brother's cup — naked Rebellion, with 
his torch and axe, making his wild sport of your blazing thrones till 
Anarchy comes down on you like night, and Massacre seals Rome's 
eternal grave! " 

4. But the question ever returns : Why do of- 
fences come ? Why this demon deed, like a bolt 
from a clear sky ? In what mystery of evil must it 
transpire ? In the reported query of the President 
himself, "why did that man shoot me?" — who, in 
answer to this question, can trace the working of a 
disordered mind ? Will the infidel philospher tell us 
it was a mechanical necessity ? Will the wretched 
homicide himself tell us it was a political necessity ? 
And one answer is equally satisfactory as the other 
to the great, surging, palpitating heart of this nation 
on this fair summer Sabbath day ! 

But why, if God rules (and rules most surely He 
does), was such a deed permitted to fall like a leaden 
weight upon our national name — staining the fair 
escutcheon of America, and lowering the mighty flag 
of the Republic to half-mast on the country's proudest 
day in all the year ? 

Why should the innocent be made to suffer by the 



17 
hand of the guilty ? Why should tlic lioiioriMJ aiiil 
distiuguished be laid low by the uiui-dLM-ous act ofau 
insignificant and crawling miscreant, prowling in tlie 
very sanctuary of women, and watching his chance 
for an immortality of infamy ? Why does the Al- 
mighty Ruler of the Universe permit such things to 
be, unless upon the principle tluit human agency is 
free ? Men are moral beings, and are acting them- 
selves out, and acting on one another to resolve the 
stupendous problem of human life — so that good may 
be evolved from evil ; so that nations may learn 
more thoroughly the value of authority and subordi- 
nation — the very marrow of tranquillity and peace ; 
so that men may know that the laws of God are the 
only foundation on which the stability of States can 
safely repose ; to stain the vanity of human pride ; 
to show how greatness may be suddenly crippled by 
littleness ; to show what small credit lies in all the 
boasted glory of human progress ; to show that the 
vaunted civilization of our times can be equally 
shamed by deeds that once stained the barbarism, so 
called, of former ages ; that human nature is the same 
in all climes and centuries ; and that the Bible of the 
Christian is God's faithful transcript of the history of 
man on Earth, and that the muttering, peeping wiz- 
ards of a shallow philosophy are the most arrogant 
deceivers and most virulent enemies of mankind. 

In this year of wonders — when the physical ele- 
ments seem to be astir with unwonted energy ; when 
the political elements in all nations are filling the 



18 
hearts of men with jJerplexitA' and fear: when com- 
ets blaze ill the midnight sky, and tempests make 
havoc of the liomes of men ; when murder stalks 
abroad in open day, and the honored head of a great 
people lies in the anguish of his mighty struggle for 
life itself — what ought to be the attitude of such a 
people before the Supreme King of the world? 
There is, and there can be, but one rational reply. 
Let the feuds of party and the bickerings of 
ambition have a pause. Let vice be arrested — 
let corruption perish. Let blasphemy seal her lips. 
Let the tongue of slander be paralyzed, and the 
hand of detraction be palsied. Let the lying 
spirit abroad in the land be made silent as the 
grave. Let the church be purified and re-indoctrin- 
ated in the saving truth and energy of the cross. 
Let Sabbath profanation cease. Let the scourge 
of intemperance no longer waste the country's gen- 
ius and flower. Let humility take the place of 
pride. Let infidelity hide its hideous head. Let 
superstition and fanaticism be suppressed. Let the 
wandering and infatuated people return to the sanc- 
tuaries of Grod, and there, by the altars of prayer and 
praise and worship, learn once more in penitence 
and tears that the favor of the Omnipotent Jehovah 
is the only buckler of a nation's prowess — the only 
fortress of a nation's peace ! 



APPENDIX. 



The Washington Post, a promineul journal of tlie day, had an edi- 
torial coiumenlina; on a paragraph of this discourse, in its issue of 
Tuesday, July 5, 1881. 

As that article is personally dignified and respectful, and contains 
some points in which I heartily concur, I take the liberty of adding 
belowa communication which was prepared so soon as my attention was 
called to it, but whicli, tlirougli some unavoidable dela}^ was 
not sent to the conductors of that paper. 

To the Editor of the Post. 

My Dear Sir: In the rush of events, andtheanxiety of these days, 
I had not seen your comments of the 5th instant on a paragrapli of 
my last Sabbath discourse. In fact, my attention was c illed to it by 
a letter from a gentleman in Virginia received yesterday, and insi)ired 
by his reading your article. He also sent me a pamphlet which he pub- 
lished in New York not yet a month ago. 

As to the tone and manner of your criticism I note no exception — un- 
less it be that you have taken a single paragraph for the whole dis- 
course. I perceive you hold the optimist view of the occurrence— and 
surely it is more grateful to our nature to make the best of everything 
— but you will agree with me that there is a time to mourn as well as 
a time to dance. And does it not pertain to the christian pulpit to point 
out the danger of society, and raise a voice of warning againt the evils 
which threaten it? If the christian clergy may not, or ought not, to 
do this, to what class of men shall we look'? Many, I know, affect to 
despise them as interior in intellect, and incapable of tracing causes 
and effects; yet if this could be shown to demonstration, the clergy 
might, possibly, be ot some public utility— since we are told that on 
one occasion it was the cackling of geese that saved Rome. 

Every thoughtful man will seek to find, as far as possible, a final 
cause for such events as that which the civilized world is now deplor- 
ing. In this pursuit I ventured to give an interpretation to the dis- 
pensation of Providence. But to this you take exception — as you 
surely have the full liberty to do. You and I both believe in the su- 
perintending Providence of Gt)d, and that by His purposes, either posi- 
tive or permissive. He designs to deal with" men and nations as moral 
agents, capable of free choice, and responsible to law. We are not of 
those who seek to sit in judgment on the Supreme Being, and with 
vain hardihood speak of Him in terms of contempt and blasphemy. 

But you think I have failed to draw the rightful lesson from the 
premises; not because there is no lesson, but because the evil specified 
does not in fact exi*t. 

As to the perils of "unbounded license," were it agreed that sucli 
an evil does exist I presume we should not differ. Nor do I imagine 
you to dissent from the liability that this evil may come to exist, even 
if it does not now, and in either case to be forwarned is to be fore- 
armed. You will take notice that I have only discussed the tendency 



■ /y 20 

of Ihe current state of things, without attempting to define the point to 
^vili(•Il we have alread)^ reaclied. 

Of fourse you are loolcing at the aspect from one stand-point and I 
am looking at it from anotlier; and viewing it as I do, I must confess 
th;it while my hope as a cliristian predominates, my fears as a citizen 
arc many and great. 

I fully agree with you in the doctrine of toleration; but at the same 
time I dejilore many sentiments which seem to me to be most perni- 
cious, and wliich, if they could prevail, would, in mj^ ojMnion, inflict 
the deei)est injury ujion society. 

There are many points in your editorial which deserve candid con- 
sideration, but I will only ask for space at this time to elucidate my 
statement toward the close of the paragraph you cited trom the dis- 
course — 

"There are men among us who are the forerunners and abettors of 
this carnival of crime, " etc. 

This you emphatically denj\ and declare that no class of men 
among us teach assassination. While I perfectly agree with you that, 
so far as now ajipears, the crime of this assassin should not be laid to 
anolher man's door; and while it would be cruel to intimate or sug- 
gest, at this time, that another human being had any knowJedge or 
thought of the murderer's intention; si ill records have been made in 
this country, within the last few years, which I think would justify a 
rational fear of the evil I pointed out. 

From the pamphlet above referred to, I extract the following: 

P. 91. " In the JVew York Weekly Herald of March 19lh, 1881, we 
have the programme of Nihilism authenticated to us and taken from 
the columns of the Journal of the Congress of Internationals not long 
since convened at Berne, Switzerland." 

After citing the creed of the Nihilist — which is "to destroy everj'- 
thing, the good with the bad "—the writer follows with a reference to 
New York Nihilism, and the proceedings of a lai'ge meeting convened 
at the Steuben House, March 15th, 1881; and states that a preamble 
and resolutions were adopted, the conclusion of which is in these 
words — "kill, destroy, assassinate, annihilate, even to the very germ, 
your aristocracy. Plave for them no feeling of love, for they are in- 
capable of that noble emotion." 

And prior to this, the writer states that a public lecturer ("whose 
name I now withhold for a similar reason to that given by the author- 
ities for withholding the name of the person who furnished Guiteau 
with money) said in a certain lecture, contained in a volume the paee 
of wliich is given, what will, no doubt, shock the public mind and 
create surprise in unaccustomed quarters. The language is as fol- 
lows: 

"I suppose Alexander of Russia was put there by the order of God. 
was he? I am sorry he was not removed by the Nihilist that shot at 
him the oilier day. We telegraphed to that country congratulating 
that wretch that he was not killed. * * * My sympathies cluster 
around the point of the dagger! " 

Mr. Editor, contemplate these utterances, and then saj^ whether 
my language was too strong for the facts. " The wiice of the raven " 
may be hoarse, but I respectfully submit if he is not a more seemly 
bird at a funeral than the fowl of the Argus tail ? 
Very truly, 

B. SUNDERLAND. 

July Sth, ISSJ. 



